Federal workforce losses are mounting, and agencies need a plan

The federal government just lost a lot of people fast and there’s more to come. Between Sept. 30 and Dec. 31, tens of thousands of civil servants will end their service through retirement or separation, not to mention those RIF’d as part of the government shutdown. 

Of the roughly 300,000 departures expected, more than a third are concentrated in three departments: Defense, Treasury and Agriculture. Other communities have been hit particularly hard, including foreign service professionals with decades of experience in diplomacy and humanitarian assistance. 

The federal workforce has weathered reorganizations before, but this time feels different because of the speed and the scale. The question isn’t whether this matters. It does. The question is what we do now so years of knowledge and experience aren’t lost. How do we use this moment to shape a stronger future?

We won’t have a clear picture of the full impact until well into 2026. But waiting passively is not a strategy. As numbers firm up, federal human capital experts and career managers should move together on three tracks: identify the skills the 21st-century mission actually requires; upskill and reskill the people who remain; and make high-quality technical and leadership training available across government. 

In parallel, we need an honest conversation about how we recruit the next generation of civil servants, realign talent to where it delivers the most value, and rebuild the pipeline that has been disrupted this year.

There’s a practical playbook here. When I led human resources at the IRS, we didn’t fill vacancies at random. We hired to mission. We brought in accountants and auditors to help individuals and businesses with complex tax issues. We hired thousands of customer service representatives to reduce wait times on the phones and at Taxpayer Assistance Centers so taxpayers could reach a human who could solve a problem. And we expanded our bench of IT specialists to modernize chronically underfunded legacy systems, connect data where appropriate, and protect security and integrity. Hiring with purpose moved the metrics that mattered to the public.

Why this matters is simple: agencies are constantly assessing workforce needs, but hiring is constrained by budgets. When there’s pressure to rein in costs, the workforce usually takes the hit. That might look efficient on paper, but it’s often the opposite in practice. The result is a cycle of hiring sprees followed by reductions that wreck planning, degrade performance, and ultimately deliver worse service to taxpayers at higher risk. The workforce is government’s most expensive—and most valuable—asset. Treat it like a liability and you’ll get liability-level results.

So what do we do at this inflection point? Start by honoring those who left this year. Many didn’t want to, and many didn’t plan to. Acknowledge plainly that this level of churn is not normal and will not, by itself, produce the savings or efficiencies some anticipate. Then, put our energy into the people still serving and the public still counting on them. That means mentoring networks, structured knowledge transfer, and training that changes tomorrow’s performance. Not theoretical binders no one reads, but practical leave-behinds: the one-page “how this process actually works,” the three reports to check every morning, the five contacts you’ll need next week, the pitfalls to avoid.

We should also be smart about surge capacity. Strategic use of experts and contract support can help close gaps: call centers during peak seasons, cybersecurity hardening, analytics to spot fraud. But the goal is not to outsource judgment; it’s to accelerate delivery while strengthening the core. Design work so expertise sticks: paired teams, shared playbooks, and reusable components that the career workforce can apply the next time.

Recruitment needs the same focus. Make job announcements readable in plain English. Streamline assessments to the skills that matter. Use conditional offers when candidates clear key hurdles. Schedule interviews while applicants are engaged, not weeks later. Widen the pipeline through apprenticeships, internships, community colleges, veterans’ groups, HBCUs, HSIs, and professional associations. Real mobility, like six-month tours across bureaus and agencies, can move know-how to high-leverage problems faster than any memo.

Leaders have to set the tone and the targets. Pick a short list of metrics and live by them: time-to-hire, first-year retention, customer wait times, error rates, and employee engagement. Share progress with your teams. When the numbers improve, double down. When they stall, change the play. Recognition doesn’t require a parade. It requires visible credit when teams fix things that affect real people.

None of this demands a perfect world. It demands choices we control. We can use this moment to rebuild a civil service that is more skilled, more mobile, and more focused on delivery than it was yesterday. That starts with a shared commitment to a civil service that carries out agency missions and serves the public. Say it plainly and act like you mean it. Protecting that principle is the foundation for everything else we hope to accomplish.

Let’s begin by publicly thanking the civil servants whose service ended this year. Then bring together public and private-sector expertise to rebuild and refocus, capturing knowledge, sharpening skills, and hiring to mission. If we do that work now, we will come out of this period not diminished but better prepared to deliver what the American people expect: timely benefits, clear answers, secure systems, and a government that works when they need it most.

Traci DiMartini served as chief human capital officer at the Internal Revenue Service, General Services Administration, Peace Corps and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.